On my 18th birthday, I joined the Army Air Force because I wanted to do my part to defeat the enemies of our country and I wished to fly into battle, rather than to fight from a foxhole. After basic training, I volunteered to go to flight gunnery school. After graduation my air crew was organized and my assignment was to be the Tail Gunner!

Our crew was sent to Tinian to join the 444th Bomb Group. We flew 13 combat missions over Japan. Our plane suffered extensive flak damage (floor shot out under my foot). On a later mission we crashed on landing and the plane burned. Not a member of our crew was scratched either time. The bad memories are of our fellow crews who were lost. We grew up fast and came home with a greater respect for God and country. May God Bless America!

After the war, Mr. McFayden returned to Presbyterian College and graduated with a degree in busine ss administration in December 1947, and married Dorothy Phillips in February 1948. He was a lifelong member of Mount Carmel Presbyterian hurch, where he served as a deacon, a Sunday School teacher, and a member of the choir. In 1950, he founded the Ellerbe Poultry Company Inc., where he was president until 1979, when Ellerbe Poultry merged with White Poultry Company.

Mr. McFayden served as senior vice president of White Poultry Farm Inc., until 1985. At that time, he bought out his partners and sold the company to Perdue Farms. He was associated with various agri-business companies along the Eastern Seaboard, both as an investor and as a member of the board of directors. In 1979, he founded Systems Planning Inc., a financial consulting and planning business.

Comments:

On V-J Day I was proud to have been a part of the show of force as every plane available from all bomb groups, all fighter wings, and every plane of Navy and Marines flew en masse over the Battleship Missouri as General MacArthur accepted surrender of Japanese in Tokyo Bay at 11:00 a.m.

The DVD "Sgt. James R. McFayden:B-29 Tailgunner" is available to view in the 58th Bomb Wing Memorial Archive.